Ahern fuels reshuffle row with de Valera quit remarks

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern re-ignited the reshuffle row yesterday with a blunt signal to junior minister Síle de Valera she will have to leave office this year.

The extraordinary public move capped a week of upset in Fianna Fáil ranks still jittery after the bitter Seán Haughey furore.

The Taoiseach’s intervention came on the same day he held an “amicable” meeting with Mr Haughey to discuss the TD’s disappointment at being overlooked in the shake-up.

The timing of Mr Ahern’s remarks on Ms de Valera left many FF deputies baffled and triggered a new wave of speculation over possible ministerial promotions.

The Junior Education Minister, who will not contest the next election, was said to be angry at Mr Ahern’s comments to a radio station in her own constituency.

The Clare TD issued a defiant statement insisting she would continue doing her job and would not be drawn by “media speculation”. Only last week she made it clear there had been “no pressure” for her to go from her post.

However, Mr Ahern left no doubt he wanted her brief to go to a TD fighting a marginal seat.

“I think there has been a tradition over a long number of years in Fianna Fáil governments that if somebody is not running in the next election, and they hold ministerial office, that somewhere before the election that perhaps that they bow out and they give somebody else a chance,” Mr Ahern told Clare FM.

It is believed he was keen to keep the granddaughter of former President Eamon de Valera in post until after the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Meanwhile, Mr Ahern met Mr Haughey after the Dublin North Central TD’s thinly veiled threat to quit the Dáil if he believed he would not be in line for promotion to the Government in the near future.

“The meeting was amicable and helpful. We discussed the issues of the week and there are no differences between myself and Seán following these discussions,” the Taoiseach said.

The appointment of Mary Wallace provoked disquiet on FF benches as she had been perceived as disloyal to the Government since being demoted in 2002.

One Fianna Fáil TD said last night: “She didn’t sit on a committee, she didn’t come to parliamentary party meetings and she didn’t do any of the chores of the backbenches.”